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Navigating LA with 65,000 Pounds of NASA Space Shuttle History

In the News

History was made recently as the last-existing, flight-qualified external fuel tank for NASA's Space Shuttle Program made a 16.5-mile crawl through the streets of Los Angeles to its new home at the California Science Center. On May 21, 2016, the tank, a nearly 154-foot long, more than 65,000-pound behemoth dubbed ET-94, was towed from the port in Marina del Rey (where it arrived after another epic voyage) to the science center. Eventually, it will be displayed with the space shuttle Endeavour and two solid rocket boosters in launch configuration – looking like it's ready to blast into space.

How They Did It

Transporting a large object such as the external tank is no small job. Shuttle external tanks were routinely transferred from their manufacture and assembly point at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida by way of barge. However, the trip to California is a bit more involved.

In April, ET-94 boarded a barge as usual, but this time traveled west, through the Panama Canal to Marina del Rey in Los Angeles. On May 18, the tank arrived, and three days later, was towed through the streets of Los Angeles – streets that were not designed to accommodate a giant rocket fuel tank!

Los Angeles has some experience with this sort of challenge as the space shuttle orbiter Endeavour traveled a similar route from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center in October 2012. Though Endeavour is wider, taller and heavier, ET-94 is longer. Resting on its side, the tank is half the length of a football field. So it presents a different set of navigational challenges – which, coincidentally, make for some great math problems.

As does this bit of external fuel tank history ...

A Slice of History

Most people will recognize the external tank as the giant orange structure that was attached to the shuttle to supply fuel to the shuttle's main engines during liftoff. Space shuttle external tanks carried freezing cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and were the only non-reusable part of what was called the Space Transportation System, or STS. But the tanks weren't always orange.

During the first shuttle missions, engineers were worried that the sun's ultraviolet radiation might damage the insulating foam, so the tanks were painted white. Because the white latex paint had to cover such a large surface area, it added a whopping 600 pounds to the already hefty tanks, which in their earliest iteration were called standard-weight tanks, or SWTs, and made of aluminum alloy 2219 welded via tungsten arc welding and coated with an inch-thick layer of polyisocyanurate foam. They weighed 77,086 empty and fuel added an extra 1,589,577 pounds!

STS-1 launches from Kennedy Space Flight Center in Florida. For the first two shuttle missions, engineers painted the external fuel tanks white because of worries about ultraviolet radiation damaging the tanks' insulating foam. Image credit: NASA

After the first two STS missions, engineers agreed that the sun's ultraviolet radiation merely caused the insulating foam to change color from its original tan to the familiar dark orange and did not pose a structural risk, so the use of white paint was discontinued. The saved poundage allowed subsequent space shuttle missions to carry an additional 600 pounds of science experiments.

Ever striving to lighten the load of the STS to make room for more science payloads, engineers developed the next iteration of external tanks, called lightweight tanks, or LWTs, using weight-shedding techniques including eliminating portions of stringers (structural stiffeners running the length of the hydrogen tank), using fewer stiffener rings, and modifying major frames in the hydrogen tank. This new tank provided a 6,426-pound reduction in specification weight that further evolved to an actual weight of 65,081 pounds for ET-94.

The final iteration of the external tank, called a super lightweight tank, or SLWT, shed an amazing 18,586 pounds from the very first specifications by using a new aluminum-lithium alloy (Al-Li 2195) and some new welding techniques.

Why It's Important

In 2003, disaster struck space shuttle Columbia during the STS-107 mission. The shuttle was fueled by ET-94's sister tank, ET-93, and as the only remaining lightweight tank in existence, ET-94 was heavily analyzed to examine the role played in the incident by the tank's external insulating foam. Several chunks of foam were removed from the tank during the analysis, necessitating future repair work to return it to its original appearance.

ET-94 arrives in Marina del Rey, California on May 18, 2016. The areas where ET-94's insulating foam were removed for testing can be seen (as light orange patches) in the upper left portion of the photo. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/David Seidel

After analysis was complete, the tank resided at the Michoud Assembly Facility, awaiting an opportunity to fly to space that never came, as it could not compete with the svelteness of the new super-lightweight tanks and would require some weighty upgrades to meet new safety standards. Eventually, NASA donated ET-94 to the California Science Center for public display. When finalized, the display will be the only complete stack of STS flight hardware in existence.

Teach It

Help your students apply their math problem-solving skills to this history-making event. While considering the challenges encountered in moving a giant fuel tank through the streets of Los Angeles, younger students can practice their number sense skills and older students can solve problems using formulas – plus use mapping technology to help ET-94 find its way to the California Science Center!

Ota Lutz is a STEM elementary and secondary education specialist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. When she’s not writing new lessons or teaching, she’s probably cooking something delicious, volunteering in the community, or dreaming about where she will travel next.

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